Yesterday, the House of Representatives has adopted a bill containing an entirely new Insolvency Code. As already indicated in our newsletter of 24 April 2017, this bill forms part of an ambitious plan by Justice Minister Koen Geens to completely reform basic Belgian civil and commercial legislation. The bill intends to modernize Belgian insolvency law and bring it in line with current European legislative developments.
Important innovations are the broadening of the personal scope of application of insolvency legislation, full digitization of all insolvency proceedings, reinforced preventive measures, the strengthening of the "second chance" rules and the introduction of a wrongful trading provision. The introduction of a prepack (through a “silent trustee”), which would facilitate the transfer of the debtor's business in the context of bankruptcy, was dropped from the bill, following the recent case-law of the European Court of Justice in the Estro-case.
The bill will enter into force on 1 May 2018. Sophie Jacmain and Stan Brijs, partners in the Restructuring & Insolvency group at NautaDutilh Brussels, were members of the small group of experts appointed by Justice Minister Koen Geens to prepare the bill. They are available to answer any questions you may have about the abovementioned topics or the bill in general. Further briefing notes from NautaDutilh will address specific features of the new insolvency code and its implementation.
